Final Fantasy XIV - Kiwi Free Company

[Well Intentioned]

There's some bloat in ARR (1-50) and post ARR (50, but in patches) is very jam packed. Heavenward is great, Stormblood is packed tight, Stormblood is great, Shadowbringers is pretty good, and Endwalker is great but suffers from some of the "resting between the action" bits going on for way too long.

Double posting because I'm apparently retarded today. I loved the fuck out of HW and have enjoyed most of the story, although StB is starting to come off as being dull/stupid. Everyone in Ala Mhigo should've been put to the sword by now because they apparently are too terminally stupid to survive, almost to a person. I spent like all of ARR getting stabbed in the back or listening to these assholes bellyaching about every.little.fucking.thing and now I'm supposed to care about them? Ehhhh.

 

[Neurotypical Mantis]

i'm somehow able to actually run the game on my laptop, at an fps of over 2 at that. god bless
i like making characters

Spoiler: fellas

last one is the girl i'm playing as currently (eta i don't care if this somehow gets me doxxed i'm ready to die)

 

[Gravemind]

I will say, hopefully without presumption, that there are right reasons and wrong reasons for why Stormblood is awful. And unfortunately, a lot of what you see out of most people on social media are nothing but wrong reasons for why Stormblood is bad (or, at least, poorly told as a story).

But the other kind of fan that exists out there, the one that actually thinks Stormblood is good? That one is a creature I still fail to comprehend.

i'm somehow able to actually run the game on my laptop, at an fps of over 2 at that. god bless
i like making characters

I don't know if you realized that you left your character name revealed in your last screenshot, but it is generally not a wise idea to do that, Opaa'li Vunalla of Famfrit on the Primal data center.

Basic opsec is important, especially for this game.

 

[Neurotypical Mantis]

I will say, hopefully without presumption, that there are right reasons and wrong reasons for why Stormblood is awful. And unfortunately, a lot of what you see out of most people on social media are nothing but wrong reasons for why Stormblood is bad (or, at least, poorly told as a story).

But the other kind of fan that exists out there, the one that actually thinks Stormblood is good? That one is a creature I still fail to comprehend.


I don't know if you realized that you left your character name revealed in your last screenshot, but it is generally not a wise idea to do that, Opaa'li Vunalla of Famfrit on the Primal data center.

Basic opsec is important, especially for this game.

yea i left the name in cause i like it
i don't really care since i'm super new and probably won't play much

 

[JektheDumbass]

I'm just mad you can't make a Hrothgar look like Wilfred Warrior.

 

[Disc]

So just out of curiosity, how much needless shit is there in the MSQ, for those who have gone through EW and everything else?

I'm tired of reading/hearing from MSQ sycophants who praise the game's story like it's some mastercraft in literary storytelling when it's good for an MMORPG.

I keep getting told "everything, everything, everything is important", but, like, I can't see how the big Costa Del Sol Leviabeetus Wine Mixer, doing a 3 step quest to get earrings for a banquet or going around and rounding up a bunch of randos for Alphinaud's FC LARP (when really the only dude who mattered was Ilberg) matter or have a significant impact on the overall narrative. I get that some of that shit is window dressing or a callback to 1.0 (I think that's what that whole questline in Costa with that asshole and his banquet is about, yeah?) but I think that if that crap was cut or slimmed down the overall loss to the story would be minimal. (And yeah, I'm aware that ARR already has had some of the fat trimmed.)

There other deadend parts of the MSQ or loose threads? Or any decent analysis of the game's story that isn't just deepthroating and ball-gargling it?

tbf, the everything is important line refers to doing the major side content and the like, as basically every major side quest based in Hydaelyn gets referenced at one point or another. It's a line to convince people to do the sidequests, to stop and proverbially smell the roses - rather than just power through the MSQ - because the former will enhance the latter. The normal raid series in Heavensward is a major part of Shadowbringer's background, as the time travelling Alexander is basically reverse-engineered in the Bad Future and sends their crystal tower to the past to become the Crystarium. Moreover, it's a way to get people the enhanced versions with context without telling them specifically which ones to do, as nobody knows for certain when one of these plot lines is going to come back.

To respond to the answers you've given, which don't really qualify for what people were saying, 2/3 (arguably 2/4) of the situations you mentioned do come up in Endwalker specifically.

Spoiler

What you've highlighted is three random parts of the worst section of the MSQ - ARR - only one of which is turns up in the EW MSQ in any context. the earrings for a banquet - assuming you mean the Royal Reception in ARR - is uldah-specific, and thus doesn't get referenced as there's only a 1/3 chance players are exposed to it. That's more a tutorial quest, regardless.

For the Leviabeetus guy, you're mashing two parts of the story together - the faux member of the company of heroes, who lies about being the slayer of Titan and Leviathan and who is basically useless and never mentioned again, and the real Company of Heroes who sent you on that stupid banquet quest chain, as a secret test of character. The latter basically become the physical dps's cast for the role quest, as it involves bringing them back for one last mission.

As for Alphinaud's larp, the Crystal Braves, not only have they provided some members throughout the MSQ to do things while the primary scions have been occupied, but both Alphinaud and Alisaie have to learn what it means to be a leader and a hero. As part of this, in the leadup to Shadowbringers, when something like the Grand Company of Eorzea Alphinaud always imagined is finally starting to take shape, he's asked to provide feedback on what went wrong from the crystal braves, and he actually goes around to a bunch of the old members with you and some others to do exactly that.

 

[Zeke Von Genbu]

Double posting because I'm apparently retarded today. I loved the fuck out of HW and have enjoyed most of the story, although StB is starting to come off as being dull/stupid. Everyone in Ala Mhigo should've been put to the sword by now because they apparently are too terminally stupid to survive, almost to a person. I spent like all of ARR getting stabbed in the back or listening to these assholes bellyaching about every.little.fucking.thing and now I'm supposed to care about them? Ehhhh.

Ala Mhigo is just poorly baked, it has a couple of good parts and part of my sympathetic heart enjoys these people getting to go home, but overall their is a lot of really dumb shit there and Lyse is very "questionable" as a lead I'll say. I don't hate Lyse like a lot of people, but I find her boring which is a bad thing with her being arguably THE main character in Stormblood's early part (luckily she fucks off pretty much after 4.1). I've been told that people who lived through an actual authoritarian regime in some way really love Stormblood because it reminds them of that time and it feels good to beat back against such a regime when they were powerless in real life. Which while I can respect that take, Stormblood has other problems with its conflict beyond the oppression, that I'll spare explaining to you because you'll see it for yourself.

To summarize your overall question about the story beyond what people here have told you already. FFXIV is a very good jrpg-esque story to me, but that is all it is and only ShB I'd say would ever be worth anything skin to a oscar (and even that's arguable). People overhype it like the best of MCU movies, but this isn't citizen kane or something. The MMO conventions and gameplay really do get rough with this story sometimes (WoL is more or less characterless, you know you'll survive because they can't get rid of the player character in an MMO, etc). I think ShB is what really overhyped the MSQ, because Shadowbringers has a huge focus in the last few hours of 5.0's MSQ on the WoL's actions having a kick back effect that ultimately makes the entire plot of ShB possible. Which for me personally made even the dumb shit in ARR worth it just to reach that point, and made me appreciate the littler things in the story.

I'd say HW/EW are like above average JRPGs, SB is like very slightly above average at best or just plain average, ShB with full context from ARR-SB is to me one of the best JRPGs made in the last 10 years or maybe 20 years (tbf the genre hasn't been what it was back in the PS2 era), and ARR I personally like to some degree retroactively, but it is extremely hard to see where this stuff is going sometimes and sometimes it doesn't really go anywhere.

I personally believe the majority of cutscenes and quest lines are worth seeing (I can handle rambling tangent questlines because I just seem to have extreme patience for these things) just for what they build into big and small as I believe without the overall context and keeping things from just escalating to just, "So I killed God, stopped roman nazis with robots, and saved the multiverse the end", the big conflict isn't fully worth it to me without smaller moments. So I am firmly on the "don't skip anything!!!" camp but I'm also no one's mother so idc if people skip cutscenes in a video game.

 

[Vapewizard]

Personally I'd just say 'don't skip anything' in the sense that even if ARR has boring parts that drag on, most of it forms a foundation that is expanded upon later. Some people claim that ShB works as a standalone story but that's only on a surface level cause aside from the obvious connection you've also got entire character arcs like Thancred's and Urianger's that are built upon stuff that happened early on.

Though even so I'm not gonna force people to like it or anything. I only have a problem with level boosters because unless they actually bother doing research they will inevitably just not understand fundamental combat mechanics that are explained earlier and fuck over other players.

 

[Kane Lives]

Personally I'd just say 'don't skip anything' in the sense that even if ARR has boring parts that drag on, most of it forms a foundation that is expanded upon later. Some people claim that ShB works as a standalone story but that's only on a surface level cause aside from the obvious connection you've also got entire character arcs like Thancred's and Urianger's that are built upon stuff that happened early on.

Though even so I'm not gonna force people to like it or anything. I only have a problem with level boosters because unless they actually bother doing research they will inevitably just not understand fundamental combat mechanics that are explained earlier and fuck over other players.

Agreed. Storyskippers wouldn't be so detested if it didn't also mean that they end up not learning about basic XIV mechanics and then fucking up other parties when they queue for dungeons or raids.

 

[Zeke Von Genbu]

Agreed. Storyskippers wouldn't be so detested if it didn't also mean that they end up not learning about basic XIV mechanics and then fucking up other parties when they queue for dungeons or raids.

I don't even mind that very much as non-story skippers suck massive ass in casual content too and die to dumb shit. The average DF player is basically a booster to me and almost always has been. It isn't until they get into EX trials or up that I begin to care about that, like that one Quin fag who went "WHERE ARE DA HEALS!?!?!?!?!" when he tried to do o1s and got blasted by the fire ball next to him and blamed the healers.

For me my favorite is when they ask you to cliffnotes the entire plot for them. I remember one tard went "Can someone tell me EW's story? I skipped it" and when someone pointed out "There's too much to properly convey what's going on and you generally need context from earlier parts" and they went "You should be able to explain a story with cliffnotes and it still be good". Then someone asked "Tell me your favorite story in a cliffnotes version, I'll let you know if it sucks" then they went "Well I couldn't explain Harry Potter is just a few bullet points...but Endwalker only has like 90 quests and 90% are filler anyway". My fucking sides when they cite Harry Potter as one of their favorites and go on about how literature should be good with cliffnote tl;drs.

This person had zero idea how many cutscenes actually exist in this game, one expansion + patch content has more cutscene movie time then the extended LOTR movie trilogy and if you combine 2.0-5.55 you have more length then every Star Wars movie combined. Some story skippers are also pretend victims who act like they'll go to a gas chamber for skipping the story, when the only reason anyone knows they skipped is because they said so.

 

[CptnSnshn]

Max from Limit has degenerated into using Naguura to steal strats from other groups streaming their prog and acting like a nigger all around. I really, desperately want the WoWfugees to go back.

Why use Naguura of all people? She's so fucking useless I genuinely think having a trust in their extremes would be better.

 

[Smug Chuckler]

WoWrefugees will be gone once Riot releases their MMO, they'll "reexperience" the good ole days under Ghostcrawler assuming that he won't get cancelled like his cosby suite buddies.

 

[John Titor]

So just out of curiosity, how much needless shit is there in the MSQ, for those who have gone through EW and everything else?

I'm tired of reading/hearing from MSQ sycophants who praise the game's story like it's some mastercraft in literary storytelling when it's good for an MMORPG.

I keep getting told "everything, everything, everything is important", but, like, I can't see how the big Costa Del Sol Leviabeetus Wine Mixer, doing a 3 step quest to get earrings for a banquet or going around and rounding up a bunch of randos for Alphinaud's FC LARP (when really the only dude who mattered was Ilberg) matter or have a significant impact on the overall narrative. I get that some of that shit is window dressing or a callback to 1.0 (I think that's what that whole questline in Costa with that asshole and his banquet is about, yeah?) but I think that if that crap was cut or slimmed down the overall loss to the story would be minimal. (And yeah, I'm aware that ARR already has had some of the fat trimmed.)

There other deadend parts of the MSQ or loose threads? Or any decent analysis of the game's story that isn't just deepthroating and ball-gargling it?

The only thing I didn't like was that you're denied convenient shortcuts so if you decide to teleport elsewhere, you will have to travel the long way. I can't even attune to the hub city's crystal. As for your ARR comment, a lot of the minor details matter if you're a massive lorefag. Like, the whole quest was about how they won't give you handouts but also the rich guy that hosted the banquet is someone who always keeps promises, respects you and depending on if you do side quests, you will see him a lot.
The siren hunt was a reference to 1.0 where the first time, you helped the same guy track down missing sailors only to find out that they went to a party, the twist was that the siren exists after all. But I'm not making excuses for it, it could have been paced better.

Funny enough, there's a scene in EW where the party orders takeout (seriously) and discusses important stuff over dinner. It sounds like a dumb waste of time but there's something about it that makes the cast feel more real and it isn't completely irrelevant.

Why use Naguura of all people? She's so fucking useless I genuinely think having a trust in their extremes would be better.

To be fair to her, I thought she was going to be Quin Lite but she did try to practice on a dummy and she did express interest in playing it the way it was intended eventually.

 

[Well Intentioned]

Funny enough, there's a scene in EW where the party orders takeout (seriously) and discusses important stuff over dinner. It sounds like a dumb waste of time but there's something about it that makes the cast feel more real and it isn't completely irrelevant.

Yeah, there's a lot of attention paid to detail that I enjoy and that you typically don't see in an MMO. I get that a lot of the stuff is setting up the table and getting people introduced to the world and such, but there's such a stark difference between ARR and HW/StB thus far.

I guess I'm just saying that ARR is, although 'good' for an MMO, still not the best. Part of that were deadlines, part of it was finding their footing, so I get it. Was just curious if everything ties in as immaculately as the MSQ spergs were making it out to be.

tbf, the everything is important line refers to doing the major side content and the like, as basically every major side quest based in Hydaelyn gets referenced at one point or another. It's a line to convince people to do the sidequests, to stop and proverbially smell the roses - rather than just power through the MSQ - because the former will enhance the latter. The normal raid series in Heavensward is a major part of Shadowbringer's background, as the time travelling Alexander is basically reverse-engineered in the Bad Future and sends their crystal tower to the past to become the Crystarium. Moreover, it's a way to get people the enhanced versions with context without telling them specifically which ones to do, as nobody knows for certain when one of these plot lines is going to come back.

To respond to the answers you've given, which don't really qualify for what people were saying, 2/3 (arguably 2/4) of the situations you mentioned do come up in Endwalker specifically.

Yeah, sorry. I call it the Leviabeetus questline cos that bit with the nobody dude leads straight into the CoH stuff. I had meant that the CoH was a 1.0 nod.

But it's cool to see that a lot of things do tie together narratively speaking, beyond stuff that's built on or referenced and then elaborated on further.

 

[Zeke Von Genbu]

I guess I'm just saying that ARR is, although 'good' for an MMO, still not the best. Part of that were deadlines, part of it was finding their footing, so I get it. Was just curious if everything ties in as immaculately as the MSQ spergs were making it out to be.

To my knowledge the writers have the entire expansion mostly plotted out (including patch content) since at least Heavensward, with at least rough ideas of where the story goes from there. So say 3.0 HW through to 3.1-3.55 is planned, and they know where 3.55 ends and 4.0 begins and all of this pretty much planned by the time 3.0 is finished. So it for the most part works together and leads somewhere. Is it immaculate? Ehhhh I think the SB parts that were meant to mostly conclude with Doma and Ala Mhigo aren't as good as I feel they should be for how much the built up, especially without side content.

Ala Mhigo has potential but is too undercooked (Monk and Red Mage quest lines I feel show some of this potential), and Doma isn't baaaad but it had a pretty open slate and I don't feel it used it very well. I also feel one of Doma's crucial conflicts I think only fully makes sense to a Japanese audience, because I found one of them to be really confusing but I had a legit weeb (who actually studies and reads into Japanese culture and history besides uwu kawaii anime shit) explain to me what Doma's whole shit was about and it made more sense to me.

ShB is ultimately the summation of "This is why we do what we do as the heroes of this story" that feels more like the real ending then Endwalker (not due to writing quality, just due to how its set up), and Endwalker is more like the final clean up from what Shadowbringers' leftovers. Shadowbringers almost feels like the better ending, but Endwalker I think is perfectly fine for a 10 year+ story end, and has a very nice wrap up of everything you had done up to this point but it has its own issues and certain parts are also too undercooked. Shadowbringers has its flaws, but besides one somewhat minor part I never thought the story felt unfinished and ignored everything it had built up without properly paying off.

It isn't a perfect longform story but their is a genuine attempt at keeping the world consistent and tying things together sometimes when you least suspect it (Crystal Tower's relevance for example hugely caught people off guard, as it used to 100% be a side quest). Which with as much crazy bullshit that exists in this universe I'm shocked it is this stable. I've seen MUCH worse from long running JRPG series such as another SE property Kingdom Hearts. Compared to Kingdom Hearts, FFXIV is the Citizen Kane of long form JRPG stories which might be one reason why FFXIV is so overpraised because within mainstream JRPG circles KH is the only story with as much length and development as FFXIV and....its Kingdom Hearts.

 

[CharcoalChkn]

I think my main gripe with EW is the amount of ZERO fucks anyone in the world gives that you just killed

Spoiler

mummy

.

 

[updoot farmer]

The people banging on about how EVERYTHING IS IMPORTANT are fucking retarded. Been playing since 2.0, started skipping story at around the tedium pre-Brayflox normal straight through the end of Stormblood. Couldn't give two shits about the dragonsong war, didn't much care for all of the politicking. Hell, the only parts of the story I sat through were Hildibrand. Every expansion I'd load up, try to give a shit, then start skipping.

Shadowbringers however, I never got that urge, and it was a nice little self-contained FF4-5 era plot (though I zoned out in the post-main-patch garlemanld shit), and Endwalker was the nice, if uneven sequel.

 

[SleepyNibba]

WoWrefugees will be gone once Riot releases their MMO, they'll "reexperience" the good ole days under Ghostcrawler assuming that he won't get cancelled like his cosby suite buddies.

you promise, because aether queue times are fucking getting on my nerves now, i shouldnt have to log in at 6am so i can play the game at 4pm when i get home....

 

[ForgedBlades]

Starting to feel a bit overwhelmed again. Am I wasting my time messing around with any of this stuff ? Is there something else I need to be doing? (just started up Seventh Astral Era).

1. Doing beast quest dailies
2. Did all of the "hard" dungeon quests that unlocked
3. Grinding company seals by trading loot I'm picking up in dungeons
4. Got all crafting skill up to at least level 15 while queueing for said hard dungeons
5. Spending Poetics on Augmented Ironworks Gear (should I be doing this or holding on to them?)

I still haven't touched housing. Worth at this point or should I keep putting it off?

Thanks for the help as always, you all have been quite lovely.

 

[SleepyNibba]

1. if you are going for the exclusive mounts they have.

2. You have to do them all anyway to fully unlock all your roulettes.

3. You can honestly ignore these unless you have a reason to buy stuff with company seals.

4. Hate trade and field craft stuff, but it's needed if you plan to make any kinda money, nothing else in the game earns money remotely close to these activities which is the stupidest thing about this game, because it shifts the economy in one dumb way.

5. you're using your poetics for the right thing, it allows you to buy what is basically catch-up gear at this point, everything except for the 90 stuff requires poetics which you get so much of. when we eventually get 100 cap, the 90 tomestone stuff will also become poetics gear.